Electrically heated thawing oven



Sept. 2, 1969 P. SAUER 3,465,124

ELECTRICALLY HEATED THAWING OVEN Filed May 20, 1966 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 'ywzmwwgwzmk ATTORNEYS Sept. 2, 1969 P. SAUER 3,465,124

ELECTRICALLY HEATED THAWING OVEN Filed May 20, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet z Ill ILJLILILLL.

INVENTOR 19.4. wwziwwh ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,465,124 ELECTRICALLY HEATED THAWING OVEN Paul Sauer, Dill, Kreis Burg, Germany, assignor to Burger Eisenwerke Aktiengesellschaft, Dill, Kreis Burg, Germany, a German company Filed May 20, 1966, Ser. No. 551,564 Int. Cl. A21b I/OO U.S. Cl. 219-400 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A thawing oven is made up of an installation cell and a rectangular-shaped thawing chamber. The installation cell includes a fan and electric heating elements arranged around the fan. A funnel-shaped air guide is positioned in the installation cell to form a communication between the installation cell and the thawing chamber.

The invention relates to a thawing oven, more particularly for the thawing and heating of low temperature cooled foods, wherein electrically heated hot air is subjected to forced circulation in the thawing mufiie. In the known thawing ovens of this kind the parts which are important to the operation of the oven, such as fan, electrical heating elements and control elements are arranged about the actual thawing chamber in a housing integral therewith. This has the disadvantage that a constructional modification to one part of the apparatus involves modifications to almost all the other parts of the apparatus. Also, cleaning of the fan impeller and the hot air dust is not possible or only possible with great difiiculty.

To obviate these disadvantages, it is proposed according to the invention that all the operating equipment such as fans, heating elements, control elements and the like are combined in an operating equipment compartment which is constructionally separate from the thawing mufile.

In this way it is possible to modify the size of the thawing chamber without having to modify the operating equipment compartment. Also, the thawing chamber and the operating equipment compartment can be arranged in any desired manner relatively to one another and a plurality of thawing ovens can be arranged side by side or one above the other.

One example of embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view and FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view through a thawing oven according to the invention and FIGS. 3 and 4 show several thawing ovens combined to form a single apparatus, again vertical and horizontal sectional views respectively.

The thawing oven is composed of two units which are constructionally separate from one another, the operating equipment compartment 1 and the thawing muflle 2. The operating equipment compartment 1 contains the fan motor 3 with the fan impeller 4 for circulating the air heated at the electrical heating elements 5, and for example the various control elements (not shown) such as a clock, thermostat or relays.

Arranged in the thawing muffle 2 are the push-in ledges 6 for accommodating the grids 8 supporting the food containers 7, and also baffle plates 9 for the hot air. The fan 4 circulates the hot air in the manner indicated by arrows between the stages of the thawing oven. The

I frontally opposite one another. The common thawing chamber 2 is situated between the eight operating equipment compartments 1. The oven is so arranged that it can be efficiently charged with a grid-carrying car 13. The units according to the invention can be supplemented as required up to many different oven sizes. There is no need to show further examples of embodiment here.

All internal parts of the oven are easily accessible and can be taken out for cleaning.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for thawing and heating of foodstuffs, especially deep-frozen foods, by means of forcibly circulated heated air, the improvement comprising the com bination of:

a rectangular-shaped, enclosed installation cell which contains all operating equipment for the apparatus, said operating equip-ment including a fan, electric heating means having heating elements arranged around said fan, and thermostatic control elements, and said fan being positioned centrally in said installation cell,

a rectangular-shaped thawing mufile which is separable from said installation cell and which can be combined with the installation cell to receive a circulation of heated air from the installation cell, said thawing muflle having walls which can be closed and sealed when the thawing muffie is combined with the installation cell so as to define an enclosure for thawing and heating foodstuifs, and

a funnel-shaped air guide means positioned in said installation cell to form a communication between said fan and said thawing muflie when the thawing mufile is combined with the installation cell.

2. The improvement of claim 1 and including means for combining a plurality of installation cells and thawing mufiies into a single, large unit.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,986,088 1/1935 Wild 219-400 X 2,434,847 1/ 1948 Hagen 98-38 2,491,420 12/1949 Scott 219-400 2,906,620 9/1959 Jung 219-400 X 2,966,573 12/ 1960 Hansen 126-21 X 3,170,541 2/1965 Werner 186-1 3,261,650 7/1966 Stromgvist 312-236 3,368,062 2/1968 Gramenius et al. 219-400 FOREIGN PATENTS 550,920 2/ 1943 Great Britain.

VOLODYMY R Y. MAYEWSKY, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

